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Prologue We were finally surrounded. The kingdom’s heart beat rapidly, and its shallow breaths marked its very sudden death. I never imagined myself feeling somber for a living kingdom, but here I was, drowned in despair as our last card squeezes out whatever small bit of life it has left. It’s kind of ironic, really. The most powerful species was hunted to almost extinction, and the few who gained sanctuary from their very own capital would not live to see the morning suns. The most ironic part of all was that the “strongest race” would be taken down by a single member of one of the weakest race. People within the castle screamed and ran desperately from something towards the left of the large, wide open, steel doors of the throne room, but their efforts were in vein as their screams vanished simultaneously and they collapsed into a pile of dust on the ground. I myself felt a wave of power strike me and felt my muscles tense up and shake, as if I was protecting myself from the same fate. The castle was suddenly silent, Eerily so. The only sounds were the occasional crumbling of the stone around me, and the only conversation was in the very throne room I was currently in, with my personal guard, Burn, ordering soldiers to set up barricades and blockades so she could not get in the room and kill me. Then he did the unexpected and forced me into the safest room in the palace, the Suspending Chambers. He sealed me into the chamber and booted up the system. Despite my brute force, which was mostly unparalleled in the entire kingdom, he still managed to put the oxygen mask and the wires on me. Then the glass cylinder slid down slowly from the ceiling and sealed with a slight creak. I desperately tried to break open the glass and save my kingdom, but to no avail, leaving me pounding on the glass, slowly getting weaker as I progressed. Eventually I quit, seeing how futile it was, I slumped down to the floor and wept to nobody but myself as my body slowed down from the cold and the eerie green water slowly filled the tank. I wished I could protect my kingdom, my friends, my servants, but I simply had no energy left to fight. I let the liquid wash over my body, let my pity and sorrow go, and used the rest of my energy to try to empower Burn a slight bit more so he stands a chance, as I saw him marching up out of the hidden chamber and closing it, putting on a brave front as he always did. The last expression he gave me was an emotion I could not place, and I finally entered a long 90-million-year slumber. Chapter one: Wunder Dich Vor Angst Beginning of Vengeance Major Arc Massive explosions burst through the air as the cannonballs tore the village down house by house. I grabbed all the materials I needed to keep my shop, the Adventurer’s Toy-box, operational on the move, desperately trying to escape the onslaught. Scrolls, books, weapons, money, food, anything needed for a long survival trip. There were some Elixir’s on the top shelf that I just couldn’t reach, so I had no choice but to leave them. I ran outside pushing a cart as fast as I can in front of me, with a massive pile of things on top of it, as well as stuff hanging over it and stuff falling off of it when I remembered going down by the docks yesterday and putting down my dagger, but I do not remember picking it up. I would just leave it, but it was a magically engraved dagger my grandfather apparently wanted to be given to me when I turned 15. I tied the cart to a flowerpot outside the shop door and pushed through the crowd towards the docks, which was easier thanks to the docks being downhill. The city was slanted, going from the forest to the docks along a large hill. And there were a lot of side streets including 3 main streets, the middle one which my shop, run by my mother, Dira, was on. I passed several shops, such as the candy shop, the toy store, the general store, and other stores that were very popular in the town. The further I got, the less people were there to block my way, making it easier to go downhill. Then I heard a voice very similar to Dira’s yelling towards me. “Where in Ferjül’s name are you going!” she yelled, and when I looked up she had a very worried look on her face. I hesitated, maybe it was better to leave the dagger after all. But I was told by her a while ago that it was very important to our family, and I have already come this far, so I didn’t just want to leave it behind. I hastily said “I need my dagger! It’s by the docks!” and kept working towards getting to the docks. Once I arrived at the docks, I saw the full weight of the threat coming towards us, and it left me shaking in my boots. The pirate ship was one of the most terrifying on all the seas, with its magnificent height, the hull curving out from the water, but instead of stopping somewhere along the line, it curved inwards towards the top, and the white zig zag stripes lining the top of it. The rest of the hull was painted red, and there were circus tents of every color with white stripes on platforms lining the sides of the hull, in a seemingly random amount. Towards the back of the ship, there was a giant red and white striped circus tent taking up a large part of the deck in the back of the ship, though I didn’t get a good view from the frontwards angle it was showing. On the deck, there seemed to be all sorts of attractions, from a black and grey carousel to a rainbow-colored Ferris wheel to a massive grey bouncy castle with small details worked in as well. The ship appeared to be powered by a furnace, however it also seemed to be sail powered as well, which seemed strange but considering the sheer size of the massive ship I wasn’t the most surprised that it needed multiple energy sources to remain efficient. There was black smoke funneling heavily from the top of the large masts. The legends of the famous Die Wunderwelt were not tales to laugh at, being made from titan wood, the ship would not go down if crashed into by six others, and no cannon could penetrate the hull. The ship of wonder and fear, and the captain not being any better, considering he was supposedly mad. The ship was reportedly as entertaining as it was terrifying, and the captain having more fame than the ship and all its rumors and horrors combined. One of the pirate lords 6 chosen generals, the pirate who does not kill, but kidnaps entire villages, Deza “Clown King” Black. There was what looked like a figurehead of a crying clown head, with a sinister look, sharpened teeth, a party hat, lipstick, and even blush. There were miniature circus tents branching off the ship, the deck containing a roller-coaster, a Ferris wheel, a bouncy castle, a ginormous cake, a merry-go-round, and a giant circus tent on the back of the ship. An eerie tune was coming from the people on board, and If I remembered it correctly, it went like this: Swing, swing, swing, swing with me baby, baby, swing, swing, swing, swing with me child, on the night of the blood ball. I made it to the docks, which were completely empty with sparse amounts of supplies left. A few barrels dotted around, rope and a few boats were here and there, and I finally saw my dagger, glowing bright among a barrel. As I ran to grab it, a cannonball hit the docks a few feet in front of me, breaking the platform, so I had to go the long way around, weaving between other wooden platforms and dodging cannon fire. I grabbed the dagger and bolted my way back through the docks and up the cobblestone street. The streets were empty, and even though I knew it was impossible for them to escape that fast, I hoped that they all escaped into the forest behind the town. Though my thoughts were in vain because when I got to the rendezvous planned in the forest for this kind of invasion, not a soul was in the clearing. The pirates must have caught and killed, and I must have been the only survivor to escape. But then where were the bodies? If the bodies were missing and there was nobody alive here, that must mean only one possibility. The legends about the great pirate ship Die Wunderwelt said that the captain liked to travel to random villages and take the citizens. At that point the rumors range anywhere from keeping them as slaves to adding them to the crew with mind control, but one thing was certain, the citizens never came off the ship, not even the corpses... I wanted to go save them, but what could one 15-year-old girl do to an entire pirate ship as big as the Wunderwelt. When I was thinking about what to do, I realized that I wasn’t alone. I whipped my head around to find a small child on the verge of crying walking slowly from the forest, but his eyes showed no emotion whatsoever. I wondered who he was, considering he came from the opposite direction of the village. This was a classic scenario, the child wants me to help him find his mother and I tell him his mother has gone far away, then I consult the boy. But it wasn’t what I thought, and the boy said instead “my dad said that I have to go and take somebody to see him, but I’m not sure I want to”. This seemed sort of strange and ironic, but I asked him who that person is, and he pointed directly to me. I gasped, seeing through the plot and started to turn around and run, but there were two men to meet me and darkness crowded my vision as the bag came over my head and something knocked me unconscious. Chapter two: A Strange Voice Slowly as my vision cleared, I first realized that I wasn’t in the forest anymore. I appeared to be inside of a dark room which seemed to resemble a bedroom. I was sitting on a bed with red colored sheets, and a white stripe lining the top in an elegant fashion. The sheets were most likely made of silk, considering how I was sneezing an awful lot. I quickly got out of bed, just for my feet to feel a soft green and yellow striped carpet. There was a nightstand on either side of the bed, one with a golden lamp and various types of traveler equipment, including a map and a compass. I snatched both and had a look at them. The map appeared to be a map of Fros, a northern continent of ice and snow, and the compass appeared to be a sky compass, the compass that can point in all directions, including up and down. If a sky compass was on board this ship, that could only mean one thing. Contrary to the legends, apparently the Die Wunderwelt was indeed a flying ship, because there were no more uses for this specific compass, and it costs too much to just buy it off a whim. The room was made of a wood unlike any I’ve seen before, with bone pale coloring, it felt strong and durable, yet soft and smooth. Wherever I was, I wasn’t home, that’s for sure. There were three dressers lining the wall with various clothes and types of jewelry hanging out of extended drawers. Naturally, I wouldn’t be one to turn down an expensive necklace or two, so I took three and hastily shoved them in my pocket. I made my way out the door in the right-hand corner of the room, and walked down a hallway, where I heard a voice. I jumped and fell hard. The voice didn’t seem like it was coming from the hallway, outside, or in my room, it seemed like it was in my head. What the hell?! Where am I! Why am I not dead?! I swear I died! ''I started freaking out too. Why was there a scared girl’s voice in my head, who, or what, is she, HOW did it get in my head, is it even in my head, or is it somewhere else, how do I make it stop! She stopped screaming and she just sounded confused. ''What on earth? What’s that supposed to mean? ''I wanted to ask her what happened, but I felt too scared to ask. Then she started screaming again, ''What?! I was NOT going to start scream fest again, so I stopped her there. “Who are you, where are you, Show yourself!”. She said Calm down, calm down, I’m just as confused as you are. ''This annoyed me a little, “Calm down? Says the person who was screaming for a full minute!”. ''Yeah yeah, well that’s over now, so let me tell you what’s going on. A few seconds ago, a message appeared in front of me. '' The first thing was that she was stuck there unless the vessel holding her was killed. The second thing was that I did not have to speak out loud to talk to her, I just needed to speak in my head, and the third thing was that we could alternate between who was operating the body, and who was locked in the mind using a technique called soul swap. We were still uncomfortable with each other, but at least we knew that neither of us wanted to kill the other. We walked down the hallway and up the stairs onto the deck while trying to resurrect Ingrid’s lost memories and what we saw was a unique sight. On the deck of the ship was a carnival, complete with game stands, rides, and a giant circus tent. The view was amazing, and the crew was having genuine fun. Or at least I thought they were having genuine fun, until Ingrid told me to look closer. I did, and these people were neither having fun nor part of the crew. Thousands of citizens of all races and species were here, and on the outside, they were happy but, on the inside, they were miserable. A mix of depression, fear, and anger crashed onto me like a giant wave as I stumbled back. Ingrid said she assumed this was thanks to an ability called See-Through, which allowed the user to view the true feelings bore by the spirit inhabiting the body, even if their exterior showed otherwise. I wondered how I had more than one ability, considering my current ability was Money Gazer, the ability to see through money of all kinds to see if it was true money or fake. A pretty useless ability I say since it rarely comes of any use, but that doesn’t mean I can just get another one. Abilities are supposed to be one per person, with a few exceptions for some species with a common ability. For instance, zombies all had 2 abilities, their special ability, an ability that only they have, and the ability Rampage which changes their appearance and strength by their amount of anger and hatred and is carried by all zombies. I could sense that neither of us trusted the other a lot, but we both had a common goal. To figure out why we were stuck in this body, and to figure out how to release ourselves without death, which we assumed was the only way till now. Ingrid had an idea to get me to trust her. She led me to the front of the ship at the roller coaster that we saw once we surfaced at the deck. The roller coaster had an extremely long line and I didn’t want to be on this ship longer than I had to be. Ingrid told me not to ride it anyways, so there was no point in doing so. I went to the front just to view the cars, and what I saw scarred me for life. A group of mothers, children, fathers, and travelers of many races got on board and as the people sat down and were locked in their seats, their faces went from gleeful to downright horrified in a matter of seconds, like they had been lifted from a curse. Fear filled their eyes and they screamed “Let me off” in many different messages, languages, and ways, but it was no use. Their screams were silenced as they went down the coaster into the bowels of the ship. I nearly puked as their mauled corpses came back up and were “escorted” off the ship. Ingrid was the thing that kept me from doing so. She reassured me, saying that they were off to a better place, and that she assumed that was one of the only rides that actually kills people on this ship, since they need a “willing” crew to operate it and all. I still mourned their deaths, and I felt bad for them, even if I did not know them. A thought occurred to Ingrid and she finally asked for my name. ''Akira Eval, I said, and with that, we were off to figure out how to get out of this nightmare. Chapter three: '' The Game of Life'' We walked back to the game booths and we found a game that Ingrid wanted to play, and Ingrid begun walking me through the process of our first Soul Swap. She told me to relax my mind and concentrate on nothing other than our two souls orbiting each other. I did as she said and saw a small glowing yellow flame, and a small green flame which was not glowing, orbiting each other. Then, she told me to try grabbing them and gently switching the order of them. Reluctantly, I grabbed the flames by the “tail” as she said, and I switched the rotation to make it rotate backwards. The darkness around the flames flashed, causing the flames to disappear and the next thing I saw was a blurry mix of yellow and green and a large, clear oval showing my previous location in the Die Wunderwelt in the center of it all. Switching to Ingrid’s perception As I played the game, I finally realized how creepy and annoying it is to have a voice in my head, and I made a silent vow to speak less when inside. Then when I finally won, a shadow crossed over me. A voice with a slight Mulvarian (equivalent to British) accent, but also a normal pitched Zhuurgonian accent (Best example is Dr. Hamsterveil from Lilo and Stitch) said “We have a winner!” His voice boomed, as he begun a slow clap. Everyone around me gasped and the booth owner said “L-L-L-Lord Deza!” as he fell back in fear “I’m s-s-sorry sir I did not s-see you there!”. All Deza said in return was “Well nobody ever does, that’s kind of the point”, Then he turned to me. “And who might you be little girl? I do not remember you being on my crew.” He put his hand on my shoulder and we were suddenly in a nicely furnished wooden room which was almost homely. Almost. “Were you one of the people from the village that we just visited?” I did not know anything about a village, but Akira uncomfortably told me she was, so I managed to stutter out a yes. He said, “Well if you are, then we have much to talk about!” His voice turned dangerously sinister in the last part, “Like what to do with you.” I said in response “Well you COULD possibly bring me back to my village, so I could live out my happy days.” Deza just cracked at that and said, “We could not do such a thing without playing a game first! And I know the perfect game we could play. Besides, all the members of that poor, poor village have been saved anyways, and are on this ship now.” “The game is simple. On my ship, as you have seen there are many rides, booths, and other things for your enjoyment. You will ride and play everything on my ship except the roller coaster and the merry go round, and you have 24 hours to do so. If you don’t laugh even once on this ship during the 24-hour period you win, and you and your entire village are free to come and go off my ship as many times as you want.” He seemed to be missing the important part, so I filled in the blank question for him, and what happens if I lose?” he smiled grimly, and said “My special ability, Soul Spirit, allows me to control the will of a living soul of a power rank lesser than me. If you are to lose, your soul shall be bound to this ship and tricked to love this ship with all its heart. It shall continue to laugh and laugh and laugh at the same old gags and pranks until your head screws off and your lungs pop! Isn’t that a fun way to die?” I didn’t like my chances at this game, and it seemed neither did Akira, so I asked, “Can I refuse the game?” “If you want to be hung on the cherry tree, sure”. It’s ironic how unfair a game can be if you haven’t even started it, but there was only one possible choice to the situation. After clearing my choice with Akira, I looked Deza straight in the eyes, ducked in a deep breath, and said, “I agree.” To not regret it later. Deza “Clown King” Black was not one to be trifled with, and if I had any chance at living this was it. Deza giggled maniacally and said “Then let the game begin! Be sure not to lose your will, and with it your head!" Chapter 4: Game, Start Well after THAT happened, we took a moment to process as Deza seems to be going off on a different topic, barking commands to the crew behind him. We had just signed up for an impossible game and had no way out of it. We had to stay awake for an entire day, without laughing even once by accident, and if we failed to not laugh we would become a slave. If didn’t go to all the games, we would be hung. If we quit, we would be hung. Our only chance at winning is to quickly go through each and every stand in the grand carnival of a ship, and not laugh at ANY of them. Do you think we have a chance to win? ''Akira said, and to that, I had no answer. We would have to form a strategy of some kind to try and maximize our chances. ''I think we should take shifts so one of us can rest and the other play the games, since there is no way we could win this with only one person ''I said. ''I should take the bulk of the games because I am less likely to laugh at anything than you. ''I was making sound logic enough, but she wouldn’t agree. ''I think we should have the same amount of work, both of us will eventually laugh, and I’m less laugh prone than you think I am. I also think that you don’t deserve to carry the whole thing, let me help too. ''I thought for a moment. Yes, it certainly would be rather hard to do this whole thing split 2:1, but at the same time I didn’t want to risk it. But... ''Fine ''I said ''if you think you can handle it without laughing, we'll split it 50/50, but if there's even a thought about laughing at anything, I’m ripping you out of control and taking your place for the rest, okay? Akira was a little annoyed at that last sentence, but overall, she was contempt, so she kept her mouth shut. Or would it be her mind shut? Whatever, after we stopped talking I started paying attention again, and there was a strange robot in front of me. The head looked like a weird, over sized old radio, with a speaker on the left side of the face, a large eye with no visible pupil, but instead, indefinitely shrinking orange and purple rings looking like stripes on it, above the eye was a clock, with both the hour hand and the minute hand just above the 3, and neither was moving, meaning it was most likely a broken clock. There was a dial in the middle of the face for a nose, and on the other side there was another eye slightly lower down than the first and slightly smaller as well. This eye had a radio frequency gauge above it turned all the way to the left. There was what looked like a lever for a left ear, a small smoke funnel for the right, two large zig-zagged radio antenna, and electricity arcing not only from antenna to antenna, but along the antenna line as well as around the eyes. The mouth was the creepiest part, with an unsettling smile as well as rows of curved sharp teeth and blush on the cheek area of the robot. It was wearing black lipstick and eye-shadow around the entire eye. The rest of the body was a little simpler, but still equally as terrifying. The body was a box with no neck, and it grew smaller, though not by much, towards the bottom. There was a control panel on the front of the box where the stomach would be, and it had a simple speaker, as well as, a few buttons. There were thin arms connecting to two-cylinder hands much like the body in moving thinner. The right hand had a control panel, and the left looked to have scratch marks as well as fresh blood dripping down it. The final part of the hands were four large fingers attached to the hand, which made me question its grabbing abilities. The legs were not legs at all, but a single wheel connected to a unicycle like connector, with different wires running down it. “This is my head attraction designer and is the one who made every ride on this ship, as well as the boss of the arcade, Radio!" Deza said with a sparkle in his eyes and a beaming smile. Radio's expression didn’t change, but it started speaking. “It is such a magnificent honor to meet your person. I will be your personal tour guide as long as your soul is willing to remain on board this ship.” The voice of Radio had a metallic ring to it, sending an echo reverberating through the body. It was obvious from the way his sentence was worded that he expected me to lose the game, making me just a little more determined to win this, but a small part of it made it sound like he sort of thought I had a small chance. Though at most he only seemed intrigued for some reason. “Well, Miss Akira, shall we begin the tour of this grand ship, or shall we continue this staring contest between the two of us?”. I didn’t like Radio. Too sarcastic for a robot, but I guess I had to follow him anyway, so I said “Nah, I don’t want to lose my eyes as well as my lungs on this ship, so I think we should probably get a move on.” “I would not have it any other way!” Radio said, a little enthusiastically, if that was possible. The robot moved out the door and I followed it to a balcony of sorts overlooking the rest of the deck. The balcony had a breathtaking sight. The dark clouds from earlier were gone, and the ocean was such a magnificent shade of blue, with the sparkling light of the sun above reflecting a thousand tiny sparkles across the surface. The deck was full of colors, and glistened in the light as well, with the shadows of the funnel masts stretching along it and into the sea behind. The grass was a very rich light green color, the few metal spots visible of the deck a magnificent red and white striped layout. During the night I assumed they lit up with a strange, eerie but beautiful light, but during the day, the rides shown in their own respective light from the blast of color. The booths were so greatly designed, and they were perfect for the landscape drawing attention to anywhere you looked. Red, pink, blue, purple, green, yellow, orange, white, and even the darker colors such as black and grey clashed perfectly with each other, making for an unforgettable sight. The deck stretched far, and there were so many people passing through it was hard to find where to set my eyes on, so I focused on Radio. Who was now descending down the stairs assuming my following, though I was too distracted. Once we reached the bottom, Radio said “As you have seen above, our current location is the Die Wunderwelt’s main deck. This is where the majority of the attractions aboard the ship are located, and the only place the citizens of the ship are allowed to roam freely, unless ordered specifically otherwise by staff members or the captain himself.” Did that imply that the civilians slept, ate, and lived here? Or were they only allowed to go home, or to their rooms, when commanded. Both were kind of bad, but I think the one where they slept on the deck was a little worse. We walked into a grand plaza like area just below the balcony. There were 8 pillars of increasing height going around, a symbol in the center with a platform and 3 steps leading up to it. The area was grey, and the symbol was orange and yellow, forming a cross with a circle going through the upper part of it, and 3 lines coming out of 3 of the four curves. This was easily recognized as the religion of the Cult of Ferjül. My mother was a part of the cult, so I was familiar with its rules and regions, but I had never heard of religious pirates before. I was about to be instigated into the Cult by the bishop of our region on my 16th birthday, but before it could happen the village was attacked, and instead of packing my stuff to go for my finders journey, a journey one must partake to find your reason for existing, and accept it with full force, I found myself packing up to try and run from the onslaught instead.